1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improved contactless sensing device and, more particularly, to a contactless sensing device comprising a plurality of light-emitting elements whose light is displayed on a light-permeable sensing element through a light-guiding module.
2. Description of Related Art
While the concept of credit cards emerged as early as the mid-eighteenth century, it was not until the early twentieth century that the first credit card took shape. Auther Morris of the United States invented the credit card at the turn of the twentieth century, when credit cards were made of metal. The early credit cards had a very limited number of users and were accepted only in specific stores. However, the idea of “use before payment” was so welcome that many large enterprises gradually began to issue credit cards. In 1924, the General Petroleum Corporation of the United State issued credit cards for purchasing gasoline. These gasoline credit cards were first offered to company employees and select customers as VIP cards and, due to the warm response from card users, were subsequently offered to the general public as a means of promotion. Under heated competition, other petroleum companies followed suite and issued their own credit cards, which eventually led to the booming of the credit card market. Companies in other industries, such as the telephone, airline, and railway industries, also issued credit cards to attract more customers and business.
The prototype of modern credit cards was not established until the issue of Diners cards in 1951. From then on, the Diners Club, the issuer of Diners cards, advanced payments for cardholders and charged participating merchants a merchant discount fee. This operation model is still in use today. On the other hand, merchants accepting Diners cards have expanded from restaurants to retailers and travel-related companies. In 1959, the American Express Company began issuing the American Express cards, and the card business soon reached beyond the Unite States due to the company's ample experience as a travel agency.
In a nutshell, the development of credit cards in the 1950s set an operation model in which cardholders need not pay cash for their purchases while issuer banks charge franchised merchants a merchant discount fee. Besides, credit cards also provide revolving credit and thus allow cardholders to reimburse the issuer banks in a more flexible way. From 1950s onward, as cardholders grew accustomed to using the revolving credit, the credit card business of banks took flight.
A conventional credit card reader has a surface provided with a message display screen. All messages that occur during a transaction are displayed on the message display screen in words. Therefore, with this displaying mode, an operator must read the displayed content word after word to know the transaction-related messages. It will be more time-saving and convenient if the transaction-related messages are displayed in a more intuitive manner.
Moreover, the conventional credit card reader has a surface formed with a slot. A credit card is inserted into the slot so as for a reading module in the reader to read information from a magnetic stripe or a chip of the credit card before subsequent transaction steps are carried out. While using the conventional credit card reader, the credit card must be inserted into the slot in a specific direction and with a specific end surface of the credit card facing the operator; otherwise, the reading module cannot read the information from the magnetic stripe or the chip of the credit card. Nevertheless, if the credit card is not marked with an insertion direction indicator, or if the insertion direction indicator is not clear, it may take a few trials to insert the credit card properly, which is inconvenient. In addition, as the number of times that the credit card is inserted into the slot increases, the credit card itself or the reader tends to be worn. Hence, the conventional credit card reader also needs improvement in these respects.